How long do your Garmins last?

I have a one year old 310xt that is starting to act up (stops charging when plugged in and runs to zero). In the previous four years, I killed three 205/305, so I'm only getting a little more than a year per watch.

My 405CX resets around 17 miles no matter what. Totally unreliable....has been like this from the start. Plus in rain or extreme sweat it shorts out and reset or battery suddenly shows zero. Even when locking the bezel, it still conks out.....with bezel locked....can't get back in to reset. Have to wait until I get home and plug into charge.

I end up using it only on short runs. For longer I borrow my GFs 305 but even that one reset in a marathon once at....17 miles!

305 was used for 2 years when I replaced it with 910xt. It is still working when I use it on a case by case basis. 910xt is used almost every day and it's a year and 4 months by now and still works great.

I'm on my second 305 after replacing the first after ~1.5 years/4000mi. The second is starting to have the same issue at 10 months/2500mi. However, I got both used off of ebay and don't know how much use they got in their former lives. Basically, the seal breaks down and the battery connection gets loose, causing it to shut off randomly. Some emergency surgery and resealing will keep it going for a while, but I get fed up with that quickly. I'm eyeing the 620 but can't rationalize the $$$.

I have a one year old 310xt that is starting to act up (stops charging when plugged in and runs to zero).

From this description it doesn't sound like the watch itself is going bad, just that the connections to the charger are failing in some way. That is, when you press the watch into the charger the pins aren't staying in contact with each other. Sounds like the charge is starting okay, but then some imperceptible flex causes pins to disconnect and watch gets turned on in process and runs down. This is a common failure that happens over time.

I'm experiencing the above problem myself with my 305 right now. For now I solve the problem by placing a book lightly at an angle over the watch in the cradle. Experimenting a bit showed how to do this in a way that worked, and which seems fairly reliable. Lately something seems to have changed and sometimes I don't need the additional light pressure at all. Anyway, having the problem is a bit of a pain. I may end up buying a replacement charger cradle to see if that fixes the problem so I can stop worrying and forget about it entirely; I'm sure there's lots of life left on my watch itself.

WHOOPS, sorry, I was thinking that 310xt used same cradle as 305, which it doesn't. Here's one link to new replacment charger for 310XT. I'm pretty sure problem you describe has same source of pins not maintaining connections in cradle. . .:

Most of my garmin watches last a few years or until I upgrade, whichever comes first. My handhelds get upgraded - not sure I've had any issues with them. The FR305 was useless for longer races because of battery life.

My polar watches have generally been upgraded, except the last one where the button design is pretty poor. I ended up going with garmin 910xt to combine everything in one gadget.

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My garmin recently started to have the same issue, not charging when placed on cradle or if it starts to charge it stops and I find the battery is low or zero when I go to use it. Someone online recommended using an emery board on the contacts. It has worked the last two days. Other than that my wrist strap just went out a few weeks ago which I used RiP's old 305 to replace. He bought his 305 in 2007 or so and had to replace his earlier this year (he didn't run for a good year and a half in that time frame).

I think wearing a wristband helped extend the life of my watch and I would rinse the contacts after I wore it.

You also run a ton more miles than I do, so IRR may have a better gauge.

Got my current 305 in December of 2009. It's been running since then. Still have the original battery. The only problem was when it got filled up with data from all of my runs. Cleaned them all out, did a soft reset and was good to go.

Had to replace the charging cradle and the heartrate strap, but nothing on the watch itself.

"The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue."

My 210 lasted exactly 2.5 years and then it (1) refused to download any software updates, (2) charged only intermittently, (3) deleted all the history in an instant, and (4) wouldn't save anything longer than an 8 mile run.

Got my 305 in 2007, except the strap broke which I replaced with the 2nd strap comes with the watch, it is still good. Oh, I have to purge all the data last year when I was having issues with the battery.

305. 4+ years and counting. It's on it's second wrist strap and second HR strap. The battery still seems fine.

This.

Never hear of a 400 series lasting this long... oh wait, there's a reason they'e discontinued?

Oh, and this. On it's 7th year - nice, Jasm1n8V

Originally Posted by Jasm1n8:

Got my 305 in 2007, except the strap broke which I replaced with the 2nd strap comes with the watch, it is still good. Oh, I have to purge all the data last year when I was having issues with the battery.

Just replaced my FR405 with 910XT this month. I bought the 405 in 2008 and it is still working - had no issues with the watch - just needed some new gear Gave the 405 to my brother and he has no issues with the watch.

I did notice that they discontinued the watch but I must have been lucky. Now that I have the 910 I do realise how much more I like the buttons rather than the Bezel "or whatever they call it"

This is me also, $ 89 , every time. Have had to send replacements back several times after getting them also because of issues with them and they end up sending a new one. Still only good for a couple years.

My 305 has been going since 2008. Just got the 610 because I wanted a new one. The 305 lost the audible beep a few years ago due to rain/sweat plus I always had trouble getting it to sync with the computer. A few times recently it turned off but not while running. No battery charging issues yet.

my 405 is going strong at 2.5 years. I've broken the band from the body of the watch twice, but it's nothing super glue won't fix. I've gotten to the point where I bring super glue with me to races, which is just sad, so I'm toying with the idea of getting one of the shiny new 620's as my Christmas present.

We've got an FR110, Edge 500, and Edge 305. The soft heart rate straps seem to last about a season before they die, the devices themselves have all been good since we purchased them.

I will not buy another Garmin running watch as I hate the clip charger enough to make me consider a Tom Tom or other brand in the future. I had an FR210, but returned it when the Motoactv came out and have been using that and will until it dies.

Damn you and your untimely jinxing, FB. My 610 gave up the ghost last night. If you had asked this a month ago I wouldn't have known about the 220/620's and just paid the $80 for a refurb. In a month I'd likely be able to send it in for a $50 rebate on a 220/620.

Damn you and your untimely jinxing, FB. My 610 gave up the ghost last night. If you had asked this a month ago I wouldn't have known about the 220/620's and just paid the $80 for a refurb. In a month I'd likely be able to send it in for a $50 rebate on a 220/620.

HC, I've been convinced my 610 has died about 10 times, only to have it resurrect itself sometimes days later. Often it's been totally inexplicable. I've never owned a piece of technology that's behaved like that. Anyway, thought I'd mention it because maybe in a day or two it'll start working again for you.

Damn you and your untimely jinxing, FB. My 610 gave up the ghost last night. If you had asked this a month ago I wouldn't have known about the 220/620's and just paid the $80 for a refurb. In a month I'd likely be able to send it in for a $50 rebate on a 220/620.

HC, I've been convinced my 610 has died about 10 times, only to have it resurrect itself sometimes days later. Often it's been totally inexplicable. I've never owned a piece of technology that's behaved like that. Anyway, thought I'd mention it because maybe in a day or two it'll start working again for you.

IRR add my 305 to that list. My first ultimately died and I exchanged it with Garmin. But maybe 10x or so, I would do a complete hard reset and she kept bouncing back. Never wanted to die. Heck I even saudered (spelling ?) a new battery in there and tried to revive it that way. Didn't work. Garmin still took it back with open arms.

Yeah, it seems to be behaving today after I reprimanded FB (thank you for accepting responsibility and expressing the appropriate emotion, FB - you're a champ). I'm doubtful it will last long, though. It sounds like I shouldn't have buried it in the Garmin Cemetery? I think I can hobble through like this for a long time but I'll probably need to replace it before I let it crap out on me when I'm relying on it to work for races. Thanks for the feedback, IRR.

This is a timely thread for me: My Forerunner 10 stopped logging distance mid-run on Monday— and it was brand new. I returned my previous 10 earlier this month after it stopped working the night before an 18-miler, for no apparent reason. That was the third Garmin I had owned. I bought the first— a Garmin 10, before they changed the name to Forerunner 10— a little less than a year ago. It lasted about six months before it died and had to be returned, and basically each subsequent Garmin has lived a shorter life than its predecessor.

It's not like I don't take care of these things, either. I update the firmware. I don't knock my wrist against anything when I'm wearing it (or generally, for that matter). I don't run under tree cover for the most part and I don't really expect the thing to work when I do. I clean the contacts and around the buttons with Q-tips and rubbing alcohol after each run, and in between runs I store the thing in a tupperware full of white rice (uncooked, obviously) and those silica bead packets that come in shoeboxes to absorb any residual moisture. I don't even run that much: I've run about 900 miles this whole year (about 180 miles/month right now, but that's just because I'm in an intensive training cycle— I run much less or water run, sans GPS, for large chunks of the average year). One of my friends thinks I am sort of like the Bermuda Triangle for Garmins (hers actually stopped working after she lent it to me for ONE RUN, right after my last one died), but I can't imagine why that would be the case.

So after my Garmin stopped working the most recent (i.e., FOURTH) time, I thought maybe it's not me; maybe these stripped-down Garmin 10s (reborn as the Forerunner 10) just aren't very durable, and the reason you don't hear more complaints about them is that they're marketed to new runners— i.e., not people doing 45-mile weeks. Indeed, the Garmin I got when I was not running very much was the one that lasted the longest... and it stopped working just as I started increasing my mileage. I thought maybe I just need to get a bigger, better Garmin. Now here it seems like everyone is using 300+ models and that they're lasting a good long time, so maybe I just have to upgrade. I'm a student, so even $200 is a lot of money for me (and for the time being I'm still only out $130 on this whole year-long adventure/experiment with GPS, since I bought the original at REI and have just been exchanging them as they die— hooray for that 100% satisfaction guarantee!)... so before I go that route, do any of you have any advice/insight into why my devices keep crapping out? Any tips on what model I should upgrade to would also be appreciated.

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